Has Anyone Seen Don Flack?
by X-Breath of Fresh Air-X
Summary: Don goes MIA and no one as any idea where to find him. This is my take on how the 8th episode of S6 "Cuckoo's Nest" will go down. No Spoilers.
1. Missing

**Has Anyone Seen Don Flack?**

_**Disclaimer: I clearly have no ownership over the CSI: NY franchise or the characters associated with it...doesn't stop me from loving them!**_

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**Chapter 1**

"_**Don't worry, you're going to be fine."**_

_**There was so much blood pooling around her body, her face painted with shock...**_

"_**Don't worry...WHERE'S THE AMBULANCE!?"**_

_**She was slowly fading, unconsciousness over whelming her, she looked at me as though I was a stranger...**_

"_**Come on Jess stay with me..."**_

"Don...Don!"

My mind went blank, and when it finally occurred to me where I was I found Mac staring worriedly at me.

"Yeah...I'm fine, fine...didn't hear your car pull up."

He scrutinized me for a moment looking doubtful of my lame answer.

"When was the last time you slept?"

I smiled and shrugged it off, "No really I'm fine."

I was the farthest away from fine I would ever be. I was drowning, and I would be in big trouble if I didn't resurface fast.

~*~

_2 days later_

"Morning Mac."

Danny rolled himself down the hallway as Mac stepped out of the elevator, and Mac stopped to wait for him.

"What's up Danny? How's Lucy?" asked Mac.

Danny smiled as he thought about his little girl, and what a miracle child she was bringing together him and Lindsay. "She's good, keeps asking when her Godfather's coming to visit."

It was Mac's turn to smile, "Tell her soon," he replied opening the door to his office holding it open for Danny before following him inside.

Mac walked around behind his desk, setting down his coffee and flipping though one of the case files on his desk.

"So what's up?" he asked again still flipping though the autopsy pictures that Sid had sent up from the night before.

"It's Don."

Mac stopped turning pages, and looked up at Danny, who looked as anxious as Mac felt. It was almost as though it was something they were all waiting to happen. Like a bomb set to go off at any moment; they all knew that it had been a tough month and a half for Flack since Jess had died. Although he never said anything and always insisted that he was fine, they all knew him better.

Nobody had really touched too much on the subject while talking directly to him; he would always just brush it off, throwing himself straight into work, as he claimed, "Took his mind off of other things."

Mac raised an eyebrow concernedly, "Don?" he didn't want to jump to conclusions before he heard what Danny had to say.

"Yeah I was wondering if he called you at all within the last two days." Danny asked trying to make it sound casual.

Mac shook his head thinking back, "I haven't really spoken to him since two days ago; I spoke to him briefly at the crime scene, and then the next day I met him at the other one but I haven't seen or spoken to him since."

Danny was silent for a minute contemplating.

"Why do you ask?"

Danny nervously scratched the back of his neck deliberately not making eye contact with Mac. Mac put the file down on the desk and walked around to stand directly in front of Danny.

"What's wrong Danny?" Mac asked nervously unsure if he really wanted to know the answer. Danny sighed, "I wanna say nothing, but I'm not sure that it is nothing."

Danny was starting to test his patience, but Mac remained calm, "Come on Danny just tell me."

"Well I know lately it's been tough for him and I completely understand and respect giving him his privacy, but it's really starting to bug me that I can't seem to get a hold of him."

Mac felt a knot tighten in his stomach, knowing that it was unlike Don not to answer his phone. He was almost always on call, unless he was deliberately ignoring them.

"Did you try calling his home phone?" Mac seriously doubted that Don would have answered any calls that came through his home phone line in the last month, but it was still worth the try.

Danny shook his head, "He won't pick up, but he isn't answering his cell phone. I just went down to precinct and nobody's seen him in the last two days."

That was odd, Don wouldn't just go off without telling anyone; however when you were so caught up in something there was no saying what a person would and would not do. "What about the others, no one had heard or seen Flack in the last two days, didn't he report back to his commanding officer?" Mac asked growing more and more anxious by the minute; he knew that he friend wouldn't be so irresponsible.

Danny hesitated, "I asked Stel, but she hasn't seen him and neither has Hawks or Adam. Sid hasn't seen him since Jess's funeral, and that was over a month ago, I'm really worried about him Mac, he just hasn't been the same person since Jess died."

Mac nodded his understanding, knowing the feeling of being shut out all too well. He had done almost the same thing after Claire had died, and like Don, thrown himself straight back into work. If Peyton hadn't been there for him, or Stella...he didn't know where he would be.

"What do you think we should do? I mean no word into days? I think that's a good enough reason to start tracking him down." Mac put the files back down on his desk thinking fast about who he needed to call. "Tell everyone to keep an eye out for any word on Flack," He started dialling dispatch when something occurred to him.

"Danny have to talked to his sister?" Danny spun his chair back around, "No, him and Sam aren't exactly on pleasant terms right now I doubt she could tell me where he was anyway."

"It doesn't hurt to try." Mac answered hopefully, he didn't want to believe that anything serious had happened to Flack, he knew that his friend was coping, but he also needed to know that he was safe wherever he was.

Danny nodded, "Don't worry Mac, I'll find him."

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**A/N: I know short chapter...I'm working on it as well as updates for my previous stories and a couple of new ones as well! I've been so busy and I've had no time to write...I had to post this one before the episode came out :D R&R!**


	2. Trouble

**_A/N: This has to be the fastest update I've ever done! And it's all thanks to those who R&R! You motivated me to get another chapter up and stir up the drama in the story! Hope you enjoy this one, it might be a little confusing, but bare with me! :)_**

**_Disclaimer: Clearly don't own any part of CSI: NY...although I'm wishing I owned Don!_**

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****Chapter 2**

"Yeah, thanks okay, bye."

Danny sighed hanging up the phone with a little more force than necessary, trying to refrain from chucking it out of the office window.

It was almost 5 in the afternoon and every contact that he had tried in an attempt to find Don had been futile. He felt that he needed to be out there searching for his friend but in his current condition he knew that he would be as useless out there as he was in here. He pushed his glasses up on his forehead rubbing his eyes tiredly, as he tried to think of the many possible places that Don could be.

This wasn't like him, but then again Don was too unpredictable these days, and nothing should really come as too much of a surprise. So much had happened within the last month and a half, from Danny himself becoming a father, and the team losing Jess, or Don losing Jess; he wasn't too surprised when Don's commanding officer had called to ask if he had seen Don.

Don was a strong person he wanted to be there and help everyone; Danny would know, he was his best friend, and normally it was this same situation reversed. He just hoped that his friend wasn't in any sort of trouble, and he would be able to breathe easier at least knowing where he was.

Danny pulled out his cell phone and tried Don's number again; it ran a couple times and then went to voicemail. It never went to voicemail because Don always picked up on the second ring. He hung up not bothering to leave another message as he had already left him about 7 since this morning.

Where could he be, and why wouldn't he pick up his phone? The possibilities were endless but Danny was all for thinking positively right now. He promised Mac that he would find him, and he was going to find him even if it took the rest of the night.

There was a soft knock on the door, and Danny looked up to find Stella leaning in the doorway.

"Hey, any luck?" She had stopped by earlier and Danny had explained the situation to her.

Danny shook his head no, leaning back in the chair as Stella walked into the room. She was as worried as he was, and she was as anxious as everybody else to know that Don was alright.

"I dunno Stella I've tried almost everyone, I'm running out of places to check, and no one, I'm telling you no one has any idea where Don has been in the last two days."

Both of them sat in contemplative silence for a couple minutes thinking of places they hadn't yet searched.

"He's not picking up his phone at all?"

Again Danny shook his head no, "I've texted, called, left messages; to tell you the truth Stel I'm beginning to feel like a stalker ex-girlfriend."

Stella couldn't help but smile at his light humor, but she had to admit that she was starting to think it might be something more serious.

She knew her friend was still coping with Jess's death; she had been more to him than any of them would ever know. Don hadn't been the same man since she died. Stella would never forget how broken Don looked after she saw him leaving the hospital.

"You haven't called his father, or anything?" Stella offered.

"I'd rather not have to deal with Flack Sr.; I'm sure it's nothing," Danny tried to reassure himself more than Stella, "He's going through a tough time, I would want some time for myself if it was me..."

"Yeah but would you just go off without telling anybody?" asked Stella.

Danny shrugged looking away, not meeting her gaze.

Stella sighed, "Come on Danny, he should have at least thought to call somebody, if not you why not me or Mac?" she asked criticizing Don's irresponsibility.

"That's just not that way that he does things," Danny answered defending his friend, although a phone call wouldn't have killed him.

"We're all a part of the Crime Scene Investigation Unit, we solve murders for Christ sake, doesn't he know that we're all programmed to think worst case scenario?" Stella was starting to get hysterical, and Danny quite frankly didn't blame her.

Had been him, he would have gotten it from all of them especially Lindsay for not contacting them sooner; but it wasn't him this was Don, and he knew Don, Don didn't rely on other people, people relied on him, he didn't confirm where he was and what he was doing at all times of the day, didn't have someone constantly checking up on him. For the most part Don was always alone, and he seemed to like it better that way more so now than before.

Danny leaned forward on the desk, holding his head between his hands. He had to admit the situation was stressing him out. Stella rubbed his back sympathetically knowing how helpless Danny felt especially now being in a wheel chair and all.

"Keep trying," she encouraged, "He's out there somewhere, couldn't have gone far..."

Danny nodded adjusting his glasses back on the bridge of his nose, "Yeah if only I knew where to look."

~*~

I had no idea where I was. I was so out of it that I felt as though I was floating five feet of the ground. Something was vibrating urgently in my pocket, probably my phone, but I chose to ignore it. I could be work, or one of the CSI's, who knew. I really didn't care.

This wasn't me. I didn't do irresponsible, it just wasn't my style. This is something my sister Sam would do. I guess the apple really didn't fall that far from the tree. My phone vibrated again, and it tempted me to throw it out into the middle of the road and watch it get crushed by the next car that passed by.

What was I doing? I should be at work right now; I hadn't talked to anybody in two days, I wouldn't be surprised if they were looking for me, but again I just didn't care.

The alcohol in my system was preventing me from thinking straight, I was so shit faced that nothing mattered to me anymore.

I stumbled down the sidewalk, like one of the high, drug addicted perps that I usually had to deal with everyday. Anyone who saw me would deny the fact that it was even me walking down a street somewhere in...wait what part of town was I even in?

I stopped suddenly as it occurred to me why I was even here, why I hadn't gone into work, why I hadn't called it in, why I was feeling so damn miserable. Reality came crashing down on me as I realised how alone I suddenly was.

It was all because of an Angell, Jessica Angell, she had left me and gone, and she was never coming back.

I was still walking, my legs moving as though they had a mind of their own. I had no idea where I was going until I found myself in some serious trouble.

"Hey you!" someone called out to me from a back alley, and I realized I was in no condition to be bargaining with thugs. I didn't have my badge or my gun, two things I usually never left home without, but under the circumstances of today, I clearly wasn't within any jurisdiction to exercise my authority.

So my feet kept on walking, and then like a complete moron I stumbled over the uneven paving of the sidewalk and almost fell flat on my face. Great, just great.

I felt an arm grab my shoulder, and as a reflex action my arm came up to defend myself. However someone grabbed my fist and stopped me mid swing. My reaction time was so slow due to my drunken daze and I couldn't focus properly on the thug standing in front of me.

"This guys so out of it, he's not even worth the trouble." A fist landed in my stomach making me double over in pain. There was three of them, the guy in front of me grinned as one held me still and the other started going through my pockets while I tried to pull myself together enough to do something.

"_Come on Flack, come on think, think..." _I was so dizzy that nothing in my mind made comprehensible sense. The guy behind me was holding my arms so tight they rendered me helpless as they took my wallet and started sifting through its contents.

I didn't have much money on me since I'd spent it on booze earlier in the day; however all of my personal identification was in there especially...

The man in front of me looked up from my wallet pulling out one of my official identification cards, "I know you, you're Flack that punk ass Detective who's always riding our asses when we dealing in his territory."

The bottom dropped out of my stomach as I realized I wasn't too popular with the boys around here.

"So tell me Detective, what's the punishment for playing on our territory?" he asked giving me a knee in the gut. I fell to the floor gasping for air, while the stood grinning down on my pain and misery.

This was not how I was going down; I managed to pull myself off the ground and before I realized what I was getting myself into, I rushed into the thug who had been holding me.

I managed to catch him off guard, before a single gunshot rang out behind us.

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_**A/N: I know I'm evil with the cliffie! And just for clarification I wrote Don from his POV because I felt it was easier to express him that way, everyone else is written in the third person. Hope you liked it R&R and I'll try my best to get the next chapter up by tomorrow night!**_


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